Anthony Brown's Asian American Orchestra (AAO) features five to ten intercultural artists who blend Asian musical instruments and sensibilities with the sonorities and improvisation of the jazz orchestra. The AAO's interpretation of Ellington-Strayhorn's"Far East Suite" received a 2000 Grammy nomination for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance; the group's "Monk's Moods: Music of Thelonious Monk" CD was voted Best CD of 2003 by "Downbeat" magazine. In 2003, Dr. Brown received a Guggenheim fellowship to recompose "Rhapsody In Blue" for the AAO. Performance venues have included the San Francisco, Chicago and Monterey Jazz Festivals, Krannert Hall, UI/U-C; Meany Hall, UW/Seattle; Orpheum Theater, Phoenix; and the Smithsonian Institution.

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New Releases

Recorded live at Yoshi's Jazz Club in San Francisco and Oakland, CA, the latest CD by the Asian American Orchestra showcases North Indian instruments and African percussion in new arrangements of classic Coltrane compositions.